The index calculated by INDEC grew 12.8 points compared to the first half of 2024: as detailed, 52.9% – that is, almost 25 million Argentines – live in poverty. After the worrying figure was released, Agustín Salvia, director of the Argentine Social Debt Observatory of the Catholic University (UCA), explained in dialogue with C5N that this “means that a quarter of middle class Argentine society, between 2015 and 2024, fell into a situation of impoverishment”.
For the sociologist, this situation can be explained by various crises that “were accumulating” among which he lists: “the crises of 2016, 2018, 2019. The situation of the pandemic in 2021 and then 2022, 2023.” In addition, he also detailed: “Inflation has fallen, but there is no reactivation. “Salaries are very low, good jobs are not being created, there is no investment.”
In this sense, Salvia was critical of the current situation and stated that almost a quarter of Argentine middle-class society “fell into a situation of impoverishment”, in addition to having tripled the rate of destitution. “In terms of time, one could consider how good we were when we were bad.”, he stated.
For the sociologist, one of the biggest problems left by the successive crises of the last 8 years is the deterioration in the income of formal and informal workers. In this sense, Salvia explained that “this situation has been accumulating layers of the lower middle classes who have jobs, they strive every day to have more work to see if they can compensate for the loss of income that the economy or the economic system generates for them and despite that they are poor“.
This also generates a domino effect on other strata of society, as detailed by the director of the Social Debt Observatory: “A middle class, lower middle class and popular sectors that have restricted or sharply decreased their consumption, has another effect on marginality. or extreme poverty: there is less demand from those middle classes for the informal work carried out by the poor, who do not live solely on the programs. “The driver makes fewer trips, the domestic servant works fewer hours, the gardener has fewer jobs.”
For Salvia there is no doubt that retirees are one of the most affected: “Among those who have fallen into general poverty are obviously retirees.”
Regarding the reasons for the worsening of the numbers in the first half of 2024, Salvia detailed: “There are two mechanisms that operated: one was the liberalization of prices in a context of devaluation that caused prices to explode, without adjusting income at the same time. The second factor or mechanism has to do with the fact that jobs became more precarious. There is a decrease in amount of work in the informal sector, and even from the formal sector, where there are no more overtime, salaries did not increase according to the increase in inflation“
“Inflation has gone down, but there is no reactivation. Salaries are very low, good jobs are not being created, there is no investment. All this threatens the possibility of this middle class improving its situation,” concluded the sociologist.
The reactions of the political arc to the poverty data
The data released by INDEC generated numerous reactions from the political circle. Both the ruling party and the opposition passed the blame for the current situation that affects almost 25 million people in the country.
The former president Mauricio Macri, ally of Javier’s government Milei, spoke about the increase in poverty and indigence indicators and took the opportunity to reiterate his questions about “populism“and the policies of the previous government. “Let’s not fool ourselves: the consequences of populism are paid. Always,” he said on his “X” account.
The head of the PRO indicated that Argentina “entered recession and pre-hyperinflation in 2023 due to the catastrophic economic policy of Massa, CFK and Alberto Fernández“so, as he explained, the “painful poverty rate that we have just learned is the result of this recurring macroeconomic imbalance to which Kirchnerism has accustomed us.”
Macri’s words did not stop there. The former president also attempted a defense of the libertarian administration, exonerating it for the increase registered in the first half of the year. “Growing and lowering inflation are necessary conditions for poverty to decrease, and the President’s government Milei has taken the first steps to move in that direction. Only in the next poverty measurements will we be able to judge the success or failure of this administration“, he stated.
On the official side, the Buenos Aires legislator from La Libertad Avanza, Ramiro Marra, He blamed the previous government for the increase in poverty. “We finance the deficit with emissions, that generates INFLATION and then POVERTY. ALL the poverty that the country suffers today is because of the economic and monetary disaster that Kirchnerism generated. They set the country on fire just to get to the elections,” he said.
On the opposition side, Victoria Toloza Paz, former Minister of Social Development of the Frente de Todos, directly blamed the libertarian management for the INDEC data: “all yours Milei“, he wrote through his X account.
“The relentless adjustment of the Government hits working families and seniors deepening the crisis instead of generating solutions. The indigence rose to 18.1% and the most alarming thing is that the gap widens between girls and boyswith more than 66% of them immersed in poverty and indigence”, he questioned.
Furthermore, she said she was not surprised by the figure and clarified that “it is not just a number” but “a reality that we feel and touch every time we go to the neighborhoods.”. “There are millions of kids, workers and grandparents abandoned by the government and its policies,” he added.
Then, the former official reviewed the reasons that, according to her criteria, led to poverty and destitution: “If economic activity falls 2.3%; increases the basic basket by 144%; the salaries of formal and informal workers fall 18 and 25%, respectively; Unemployment rises by 2%, 100% of drug coverage is eliminated and increases transportation by 600%, the result cannot be other than this horrible reality.
Finally, the former Minister of the Interior of the Alberto Fernández government, Eduardo “Wado” de Pedropointed out that “in 6 months, the “biggest ever” fit It impoverished more than 5.3 million Argentines and led more than 3 million to destitution.” “As Macri requested, Milei is going in the same direction, faster and stronger“It has already caused the highest poverty in the last 20 years,” he criticized.
Source: Ambito
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